From football to fútbol, FC Dallas' Shea has no regrets

FC Dallas midfielder Brek Shea did the unthinkable as a kid in Texas, giving up the gridiron for goals.

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Tonight: FC Dallas at DynamoWhen/where: 6:30 p.m.; BBVA Compass Stadium.TV/radio: ESPN2; 790 AM, 850 AM (Spanish).Dynamo (4-4-4) update: After suffering their worst defeat of the season, the Dynamo regain the services of Geoff Cameron (U.S), Andre Hainault (Canada), Je-Vaughn Watson (Jamaica) and Jermaine Taylor (Jamaica), who were out while with their respective national teams for CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.FC Dallas (3-8-4) update: Dallas has yet to win on the road this year, going 0-6-1. Loser of five of its last six, Dallas is trying to win for the first time since April 14.

Brek SheaWho: FC Dallas midfielder Dane Brekken "Brek" Shea.Bio: The son of Charlie and Kirstin Brekken Shea of College Station, he was the second overall pick in the 2008 MLS SuperDraft as a 17-year-old. He made his MLS debut just two months after turning 18 in 2008.Accolades: A finalist for the 2011 MLS MVP award, Shea had a breakout season last year with 11 goals and four assists, earning an MLS All-Star bid and a place on the 2011 MLS Best XI and the top ranking on the league's Best 24-under-24 poll.This season: He has scored three goals, raising his career total to 19 goals and 12 assists.National team: On Oct. 12, 2010, against Colombia, he became the first player born in the 1990s to earn a cap with the senior U.S. men's national team.

Tall, athletic and fast with good looks and blond hair, Brek Shea is what casting directors would envision when trying to fill the part of a Texas athlete.

Shea is the son of Texas A&M professors and his roots are in Bryan-College Station, where he starred in baseball, swimming and football. In a different era, the son of a former Virginia Tech football player might have chased his dreams on Kyle Field.

But as FC Dallas visits the Dynamo for Saturday's Texas Derby at BBVA Compass Stadium, Shea embodies the best of the Lone Star State's soccer community. His uniform represents Dallas. His heart belongs to Bryan-College Station. But he'll always be a Houston Texan, albeit not of the gridiron variety. He might eventually become the greatest player produced by Houston's Texans Soccer Club, which also developed Stuart Holden and Dynamo midfielder Alex Dixon.

"I grew up playing club there in Houston, so they built me," said Shea, 22, who will miss the match due to injury. "Dallas kind of built me in a different way, an older way. I represent both."

One of MLS' best

Shea, 6-3, was selected to the MLS Best XI team last year. He also joined Dynamo midfielder Brad Davis as an MLS MVP finalist in 2011.

Although he didn't get called up for the start of World Cup qualifying while battling a foot injury, he's one of the top MLS players on U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann's radar. He and U.S. stalwarts Carlos Bocanegra and Tim Howard were the only players Klinsmann used in each of his first seven games after taking over for Bob Bradley last August.

Not bad for a kid who was once banished from the field house at Bryan High by a varsity football coach after he told the coach he wouldn't play football as a sophomore.

"He did well and was really promising as a freshman quarterback," Kirstin Brekken Shea said of her son. "To make that choice not to play as a sophomore, they were counting on him, his coaches and fellow players. That's when I knew he wanted soccer.

"The freshman football coach said there's a lot more football scholarships than soccer scholarships. That's just Texas."

Past generations of Texas dads — especially those who played major-college football like Charlie Shea — might not have been so willing to drive 90 minutes each way to Houston three or four times a week so their legit quarterback prospect could practice soccer. But the Sheas made that commitment since Brek was 11.

A national team regular

Yet a few weeks after being reminded of the abundance of football scholarships, Shea caught the eye of a U.S. national team coach at a tournament in Austin in 2005.

The rest is history. He moved to Bradenton, Fla., to join the U-17 national team residency camp for the spring semester of his sophomore year. He eventually played in the U-17 and U-20 World Cups. He was one of the biggest names on the U-23 national team that failed to earn an Olympic berth in March at the CONCACAF qualifying tournament.

Shea is the No. 1 selection on MLS' 2011 24-under-24 list and his future appears bright. He's on the radar of several European clubs. For now, he's eager to overcome his injury woes so he can help FC Dallas and get another call from the national team.

"Yeah, I think if I wasn't injured I might have been there," Shea said of the recent World Cup qualifiers. "Watching all these games and not being there, whether you're not called or injured, it's motivation to be called back."